MMMMMM….. Beer…. What Are Beers Made of?

Beers are The Best Gift From Nature!

Beers are an alcoholic drink brewed mainly from malted barley, hops, yeast and water although other sources of fermentable carbohydrate (eg. maize, wheat, rice) and other natural ingredients may be put into create distinct styles and flavors.

Barley:

The principal constituent in beers; as grapes are to wine, barley is to beer. Barley grains are rich in starch although low in fat and protein. Starch is the food reservation that’s composed of chains of sugar molecules of the grain. Malting starts the process of discharging the sugar and making it available for brewing. Brewers use specially selected varieties of barley that are especially suited to making high quality beer and being malted. The maritime climate in the United Kingdom is particularly great for growing malting barley making British malt amongst the finest on earth.

Hops:

Hop cones feature a wealth of essential oils and resins which give the beer its distinctive bitterness and hop flavor. Contrary to public perception, beer is not “made from hops”. Typically a barrel of beer is made from 150g of hops and 20kg of malt. Hops are used rather like a spice. Traditionally they’re packaged into tall bags called pockets. Nowadays they are inclined to be compacted into pellets and vacuum packed in foil, like coffee, to maintain their freshness.

A high quality is essential to the brewing process with four to six pints needed to create every pint of beer. The specific salts naturally dissolved in local water supplies explains why some fairly little towns for example Burton on Tadcaster, Alton and Trent could become home to several big breweries. The dissolved gypsum gave keeping qualities which enabled them to be sold as far away as India to Burton beers.

Yeast:

A microscopic member of the fungus family. Yeast also produces a vast collection of flavor compounds and much of the subtlety of beer flavor comes from the fermentation states and the yeast strain. Brewers use their own specially selected and jealously protected yeast forms to produce the distinctive flavors of their own unique beers.